Anyway, I called my connections at the hospitals and they were ok for this storm. I can still work on getting on their call list. I am developing a stronger relationship with the HCA hospitals.

I worked for HCA for many years, I've put my tire chains on, locked in the hubs and hit the road during the last 5 blizzards. I probably have picked up well over 100 people to date.

While working the blizzards I was making as much as double time and a half plus gas, food and mileage. The biggest perk was a huge gold star on my annual eval. I would have been a bit torqued if someone was called in that would do it for free and I will not take the opportunity, to earn a few extra bucks, away from someone else. I will help if they are overwhelmed and request my assistance (at winch point the company I work for now will compensate me).

I think the plows were on top of it better than some times in the past. The roads were the worst I thought Friday morning but they were still driveable by passenger cars. We got just about 12" here in Centennial but it was over a long period of time. The last time I got called by FEAT was a couple years ago and the roads were pretty dangerous because it snowed and then froze and then got dark, which made for pretty nasty conditions. This time it snowed, then it was day and snowed more, while the plows stayed on top of it, and then only snowed a few more inches overnight. :shrug:

I'm not mad at FEAT or feel like it's a waste of time, I just think it depends on a variety of factors.

Hi All:
Mother Nature is against us, it seems, not giving us enough snow to go out and play.
Of course, the Emergency Management people and all the city's emergency managers are
happy.

The forecast for this weekend is for about a foot of snow in the Denver area. DON'T
PLAN ON FEAT BEING ALERTED FOR 2 REASONS!!!

1. THE FORECAST IS FOR THE TOTAL SNOWFALL TO BE OVER A LONG TIME PERIOD @ 12-14 HOURS MEANING THE SNOWPLOWS CAN STAY ON TOP OF THE SNOWFALL. FOR THIS REASON I DON'T EXPECT THE EOC TO GO ACTIVE WITH FEAT. NORMALLY IF THE SNOWFALL FORECAST IS FOR AN INCH OR MORE OF SNOW PER HOUR, WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO BEING ACTIVATED.

2. THE SNOWFALL IS ON A WEEKEND AND TYPICALLY WE ARE NOT ACTIVATED ON WEEKENDS UNLESS THE STORM STARTS ON A THUR OR FRI AND DRAGS ON INTO THE WEEKEND. NORMAL PERSONNEL ARE NOT WORKING THE WEEKENDS.

Another reason (my opinion) is the $$ it takes to open and run the Emergency Operations Center (OEC). All EM personnel go on 12 hour shifts. I may get some isolated ride requests this weekend and will call FEAT members living closest to that area.
Keep up hope though, we still have snowy April and May to get through.

Gene W King
FEAT Chairman

PS If you have NOT yet completed a new FEAT application in the past few months, please do so by going to www.ColoradoFEAT.org